Winner: Vodafone

Unilever presented its newly orchestrated procurement operation, Ultralogistik, which controls the sourcing of transport for inbound production and non-production materials. Co-ordinated by the supply chain head office in Switzerland and executed through its operations team in Katowice, Poland, the initiative has significantly reduced transport spend.

Travis Perkins’ approach to sourcing and procurement recognises that imposing prices, charges and procedures on suppliers is unlikely to get the best results. The two key initiatives that were at the heart of the building merchant’s entry were a web-based supplier extranet to provide visibility, and a supplier colleague programme where supplier employees work permanently alongside the Travis Perkins team. The two initiatives have significantly improved range management, upgraded the quality of product data, reduced slow moving stock and have successfully highlighted areas of inefficiency.

The presentation put forward by Vodafone centred on its Supply Chain Finance initiative for suppliers. The scheme leverages Vodafone’s borrowing rates to allow its suppliers access to lower costs of finance. The SCF has made Vodafone a more attractive customer for its suppliers to do business with and in turn, has translated into suppliers being able to offer improved commercial terms to Vodafone.

The project was a result of the centralisation of the company’s procurement operations, and after only a few months it is being used by suppliers to discount many hundreds of millions of euros. The solution delivered by Citi is fully integrated and once invoices are three-way matched (purchase order, goods receipt note, invoice) the supplier can access funding immediately. The judges were impressed.